If negotiations had been completed earlier and the bill passed sooner, there would have been less of a delay in getting the benefits to workers, Robinson said.
Michele Evermore, senior policy analyst of the Washington, D.C., nonprofit National Employment Law Project, said she was getting calls from state unemployment agencies representatives on Christmas Eve, looking for her help in deciphering the bill language, which wasn t released until Dec. 21.
“I absolutely blame Congress for most of this, she said, along with Trump.
Still, the extent of the delays with implementation seen in Michigan and in states around the country have left unemployment experts scratching their heads.
January 28, 2021
The unemployment rate in Michigan went up in December. The Michigan Department of Technology, Management, and Budget has released the following:
Not seasonally adjusted jobless rates increased in all 17 major Michigan labor market areas over the month, according to data released today from the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget.
“Regional labor markets experienced pandemic-related and seasonal job cuts in December,” said Wayne Rourke, associate director of the Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives. “Preliminary 2020 annual average jobless rates rose significantly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Regional jobless rates in the state ranged from 3.6 to 10.1 percent in December. Jobless rate advances over the month varied from 0.2 to 1.7 percentage points, with a median increase of six-tenths of a percentage point. The Northeast Lower Michigan region exhibited the largest unemployment rate gain between Nove
New unemployment claims dropped to their lowest level last week since before a set of state restrictions went into effect in November, closing bowling alleys, casinos and movie theaters, among other businesses, in response to rising COVID-19 cases.
While the number of new claims are often revised up in the following weeks, last week s claims suggest that new unemployment claims could begin to trend downward after they, along with the state s jobless rate, rose to close out 2020.
New claims in Michigan dropped to 16,679 in the week ending Jan. 23, down from 21,830 the week prior, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday. Last year at this time, there were nearly 8,000 new claims.
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A report to the Legislature from the Michigan Auditor General says there should have been more controls over how millions of dollars in COVID-19 response funds were spent. But the same report also says the spending overall has been “appropriate.”
The report focused largely on government credit cards that were shared between state employees to buy emergency supplies. That made it harder to track who was buying what, and there was one case of purchased personal protective equipment that was never delivered.
The Michigan Department of Technology, Management, and Budget, the report says, “did not have comprehensive emergency procurement policies and procedures in place prior to the COVID-19 emergency, resulting in increased risks for fraud, waste, and loss of funds.”